Standup9ja: Lawyer, govs settle over N22bn payment
An Abuja Federal High Court has approved the settlement
between former member of the House of Representatives, Ned Nwoko and state
governors over N22 billion fee for the recovery of N522.74 billion foreign
loans deductions.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole was on Tuesday informed by lawyers
that parties reached agreement to pay the lawyer consultancy fee of N1billion
and other sum to be agreed upon.
In a writ of summons filed against the Nigerian Governors’
Forum (NGF) and seven others, Nwoko sought an order of court directing the
forum to pay his consultancy/legal fees from the N413.6 billion already
released by the Federal Government, as agreed in his engagement letter to
recover the accruals from the funds, wrongly deducted by the Paris Club and
London Club between 1995 and 2005.
In the suit by his lawyers, J.K. Gadzama (SAN) and K.C.O
Njemanze (SAN), Nwoko also asked the court to direct the Minister of Finance
and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay directly into his account any sum
to be released on the refund of the excess deductions without passing thought
the NGF.
The lawyer had joined as defendants in the suit: the
Accountant General of the Federation, the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC); Access Bank PLC and Guaranteed Bank PLC, claims that the NGF
has hired another consultant to illegally copy his work.
States listed as the refund beneficiaries include: Abia,
Adamawa, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kogi, Niger, Ondo,
Oyo, Taraba and Zamfara.
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